For me, one of these days greatest food moments is to discover a fruit or vegetable I had no idea existed. I wasn’t lucky enough to spot some Pink Pearls, but on our recent trip to San Francisco, the below fruits were sold in front of the Ferry Building. They do have a cute name… you know what I’m talking about?

EDIT: Ahem, I think I belong to the minority of the people who haven’t come across Jujubes before, a lot of you obviously have! Anyone out there who has seen this “tastes-like-an-apple-date” in Germany?

these are so common in chinese cooking. my mom used them all the time when i was growing up. its found in "ba bao" tea (meaning "eight treasures tea") too.

most of the time i have seen it in soups and stews.

the first ime i ever tasted a fresh one was from a tree in a beautiful Beijing hutong (traditional style home composed of a courtyard surrounded by single story tiled buildings) behind the Forbidden City. The owner of the hutong (and therefore owner of the tree) saw us foreigners standing around trying to figure out what the heck the fruit was and she took some down and let us try it. it wasn't very soft or sweet but had a gentle flavor to it.

it's a great food memory from my time in China. unfortunately its a part of beijing that doesn't really exist anymore (most hutongs have been demolished for the sake of modernization), but lives on in my memory.

oooh! i love these dates! they're from china right? we have them here in singapore and i like eating them as they are for snacks. they really do taste like apples, crunchy and mild sweetness, though i feel they're much nicer! =) it helps that they're cute!

In Japan these are called natsume. There they are usually stewed in water until soft (maybe with some sugar added, I'm not sure). They develop a wonderful flavor that tastes exactly like caramel. There's a little stone/pit inside, like an olive or date.

They are often called Chinese dates or red dates, but I don't think they are in the date family at all. Dates grow on palm trees (right?), while these jujubes grow on a bush.

yar, this is Red Date, Chinese use the dried date to make sweet tea or put some in soup, say this date good for building blood, especially for woman, the fresh date is crunchy and sweet kind of like apple, I love them.
I love your blog. A big fan.

I bought some at the Farmers Market today, thanks to your picture! They taste different from what I would have expected, but I love them!

Mag

Nov 7th, 2007

Jujubee? That is a cute name. We use it quite a bit in Chinese cooking but in dried form and we just call it red dates. But I like the name-jujubee better.

paula

Nov 8th, 2007

In Italian they are called 'giuggiole' and 'andare in brodo di giuggiole' (jujubee's broth) is an expression that indicates a very happy state. to make the broth, you can use giuggiole (when they start wrinking), water, peeled apples, white grapes, and some times wine and sugar. cook it down to a syrupy consistency and let it cool before serving.